Abstract
Threatening cues and surrounding contexts trigger specific defensive response patterns. Posturography, a technique for measuring postural strategies, has been used to evaluate motor defensive reactions in humans. When exposed to gun pointed pictures, humans were shown to exhibit an immobility reaction. Short and long-term exposure to violent video games was shown to be a causal risk factor for increased violent and aggressive behavior. Assaultive violence with a gun is a major trigger for motor defensive reactions, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most characteristic psychiatric sequelae. Recent studies point to links between PTSD symptoms and emotional shortfalls in non-clinical trauma-exposed samples. The present study investigated defensive reactions to gun threat and PTSD symptoms in heavy players of violent video games compared to non-players. Male university students were screened according to use of violent video games and divided in three groups: non-players, moderate players, and heavy players. Stimuli were pictures depicting a man pointing a gun directed at the participant. In matched control pictures, non-lethal objects replaced the gun. Posturography was recorded and PTSD symptoms were assessed. When exposed to the threat pictures, non-players exhibited the expected reduction in amplitude of body sway (immobility), heavy players presented atypical augmented amplitude of body sway, and moderate players showed intermediate reactivity. Heavy players presented a significant distinct reaction compared to non-players. They also scored significantly higher in PTSD symptoms than non-players. Disadvantageous defensive reactions and higher vulnerability to PTSD symptoms, revealed in the present study, add to other shortcomings for heavy players.
Highlights
Fowler et al, 2015)
Given the importance of studying the hazardous effects of exposure to violent video games, the present study investigated if those heavy players of violent video games present atypical defensive reactions to gun threat and whether they show differences in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms compared to non-players
The difference in PTSD symptoms between heavy players and non-players remained statistically significant (PCL-C total score (Z = 2.58, p = 0.01)) when participants who did not anchor their PCL-C responses on a life-threatening trauma were included in the analysis
Summary
“Violence is an extreme form of aggression that has the potential to produce severe physical harm, such as injury or death, to another” (Anderson et al, 2017, p. 143). Bastos et al (2016) recorded defensive reactions to pictures depicting realistic gun attack and showed a reduction in amplitude of body sway indicating an immobility reaction to pictures of men pointing guns straight at the participant. Given the importance of studying the hazardous effects of exposure to violent video games, the present study investigated if those heavy players of violent video games present atypical defensive reactions to gun threat and whether they show differences in PTSD symptoms compared to non-players. Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Participants completed the Trauma History Questionnaire (Green, 1996; Fiszman et al, 2005). Sixteen pictures showed a man pointing a gun directed toward the participant (threat set). Participants stood motionless on the force platform looking at the presentation monitor while control and threat pictures were presented and posturographic signals were recorded. The posturographic parameter analyzed here was the standard deviation of center of pressure displacement (amplitude of body sway) in the anterior-posterior direction
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